Since the regional guard still had patrols to do, the captain decided to leave a few of his crew on Lone and Sophie's ship as insurance. He told Lone to keep their ship anchored where it was until their return in a few hours.

Should they - for whatever reason - not be back by then, then he'd given permission to Lone to sail to Ros with the few crewmen he'd left with the foxkin and his master to deliver the news of his and Lady Malik's disappearance.

Lone was currently sat on his ship's railing with his legs loosely dangling over the edge. He had a fishing rod in his hands and he was humming lightly. Sophie was still reclining in her chair. Her eyes were closed and she was enjoying the feeling of the sun on her pale skin.

The rod's line tightened, alarming Lone. He'd never fished before. Well, not without the help of lightning magic, but he'd played plenty of games where fishing was an optional mini-game, so surely it couldn't be much different from that, right?

He put more strength into his grip and began reeling in the line as fast as he could. As soon as he felt major resistance, he stopped reeling and waited. Once the resistance died down, he continued to pull in his prey.

Perhaps he was being overly cautious and reactive to any resistance, but after five-minutes of struggling, he had managed to reel in his catch. Lone didn't know much about fish, personally. However, the one he'd caught looked like a largemouth bass... maybe? He wasn't sure.

The host had developed the passive skill: Fishing Mastery.

"Heh... For a demi, ya ain't bad. Ya took yer time though," one of the galleon's crewman said as he inspected Lone's catch.

''Demi'? Is that the official word for non-humans, or is it a derogatory one?' Lone smiled. "Half of the fun is in the fight, no? It would be awfully boring if I reeled him in as fast as possible."

The crewman stroked his bountiful beard before he laughed and slapped Lone's shoulder a bit roughly. "Fair play. It must be tough havin' fun as a slave an' all. Gotta take it 'ere ya can get it, I suppose."

"Exactly," Lone agreed.

"Anyway, yer luck stat must be fairly decent. Ye'r good, but ye'r still a beginner. Catchin' a big ol' beastie like 'is at yer skill level is a mighty fine achievement." The man chuckled faintly and then turned around to join his fellow crewmen.

"Hmm..." Lone recast his fishing line and thought to himself, 'Luck stat, huh? So the people of this world can see their own statuses too? Also, he has a thick accent. So accents aren't affected by whatever force is translating every word? Interesting.'

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The next few hours rolled by peacefully. As soon as the galleon had returned, the crewmen on Lone's ship boarded it once again.

As promised, the ship's captain allowed Lone to follow behind him and escorted him and Sophie to the harbour city of Ros.

The sun had already set and night was upon them, so perhaps Lone wasn't able to see the full city, but from what he could see, it wasn't very big. 'It's about half the size of Arlith back home... So, what, is its population about twenty-thousand? Not terrible considering the tech here seems to be at about the level of the dark ages.'

Lone had safely docked his ship at one of the harbour's many jetties and he was now waiting for the harbour master or one of their employees to come and see to him.

The galleon's captain had said that he was very busy handling Lady Malik and the paperwork of his patrol, so he had said farewell to Lone and Sophie before giving them his well-wishes.

Emma was far less willing since she wanted to 'admire' Lone's good looks some more, but it seemed that she didn't have nearly as much freedom as her attitude would suggest. Lone was thankful for this. The last thing he needed right now was the child of an influential political figure getting involved with him and Sophie.

"Hello. Might you be the ones that Sir Riglorn mentioned?" a well-dressed woman with glasses who was holding a clipboard asked Sophie while she ignored Lone completely.

'Glasses? Nice. So the level of glassworking is quite advanced here. That's good. I guess Sir Riglord was the ship captain's name?' Lone internally commented before he coughed lightly. "Forgive my rudeness, but my master is both blind and mute. If it is okay with you, might it be acceptable for this slave to handle things? I have my master's permission to act and speak on her behalf."

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The woman eyed Lone contemptuously. "Tch. Damned foreign nobles and their love of demis... Forcing me to talk to a slave, of all things..." she grumbled under her breath. "The dock tax for a ship this size is one silver coin and twenty bronze coins per day. The entry tax per person is fifty copper coins. Half for a member of the Merchant's Guild. If your master is a member, have her show me her guild card."

Lone smiled wryly. 'Well, at least she's not spitting in my face or something. Damn, though. Is it that hard to hide your racism?'

He fished about in his pockets for a moment and pulled out three silver coins from his Dimensional Storage. 'I'm guessing it's one-hundred coppers to the silver, but I don't want to get it wrong since this should be basic knowledge. Best to just overpay. I'm really hoping the currency is as universal as the language is. Please, don't be the wrong type of coins.'

He handed the three coins to the woman and smiled as charmingly as his face would allow him to. "My master is very gracious. Please, keep the change for yourself. My master would like for her ship to be handled with care."

Greed filled the bespectacled woman's eyes. "Of course. For such a respected foreign noble, I wouldn't think of ever mistreating her ship." She wrote a few things down and then handed some papers to Lone. "These are your proofs of citizenship. Don't lose them."

'That's reassuring. Money is the language that always speaks best no matter what world you're on, isn't it? Still, I guess this is like a green card? Pretty fucking easy to get, huh?' Lone joked internally.

He smiled and then took Sophie by the hand. A very natural motion considering that she was 'blind'. Leaving the harbour, the two wandered the streets looking for a place to stay.

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It took some time, but they eventually found an inn willing to let slaves actually sleep inside, not in a barn or somewhere even less dignified.

The two were now in their rented bedroom. Sophie was lying down on their double bed with her hands under her head while Lone was sitting at the nearby desk.

"So, Lone. What's the plan here? We've reached civilisation like you wanted," Sophie asked.

Lone ran his fingers through his hair before he answered her. "Well... There are two things in particular that I want to do."

Sophie raised an eyebrow but continued to stare at the ceiling. "Go on."

"First, I want to meet the gods that brought us here and punch them in the face," he said.

"Why? Are you not happy with this new life?" Sophie was quite curious as to why Lone seemed to resent the gods for bringing them here.

He just laughed. "The end does not justify the means. Those fuckheads ripped us out of our lives without even a single thought towards our feelings. Sure, it's worked out so far, but I won't be satisfied until I find out what the hell they want from us and not until I've clocked them once or twice."

"Hehe. We can agree with that sentiment. So, what's the second goal?" Sophie questioned.

A distant look entered Lone's eyes. "I kinda want to visit my family. I want to tell my mum that I don't blame her... My sister that I love her... and my dad... I want to tell my dad that I still hate him, but I'm thankful for the person that he shaped me into."

"Wanting to talk to the dead... What a silly thought," Sophie scoffed. "So, in essence, you want to return to Earth?"

Lone nodded. "Someday. I assume it's possible. Since we came here, there's gotta be a way to go back."

"Do you plan to obtain the power of the gods that brought us here? That's a lofty goal," Sophie claimed.

Lone laughed. "I doubt world transferal is limited to gods. But yeah, you know what, why not? Fuck it. If I wanna sock 'em in the face a few times, I should at least be as strong as them, shouldn't I?" he rhetorically asked as he grinned.

"I see. Well, we shall work hard to not fall behind you, though considering the difference in our unique skills, it's probably impossible to stay as your equal in strength," Sophie muttered passively.

Lone just laughed a bit awkwardly in response to that statement. He could hardly deny it. His Growth Accelerator was unfair and offered a clear advantage to him which would probably be impossible to match with a genius-level of talent alone.

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"What did you say? Repeat yourself," an overweight man with a goatee asked. He wiped the grease from his fingers onto his lavish clothing carelessly as he stared at the rogue in front of him.

"Y-Yes, My Lord." The short woman with a loosely tied blonde ponytail sweated heavily in the city lord's presence. "I saw a G-Golden Foxkin wandering the streets this evening. H-He had nine tails, but he hasn't awakened yet. I-I think. I couldn't see his eyes, so at most, a first level awakening or none at all. He seems to be the slave of a young foreign noble girl. From my investigations, s-she's both blind and mute, but like the foxkin, she is very pleasing to the eyes."

The city lord stroked his goatee thoughtfully. Reaching into his waistcoat's front-left pocket, he plucked out a single gold coin and tossed it to the woman. "Good work. Keep an eye on this demi. There's another coin in it for you if you can tell me his location when I need it."

The rogue caught the metal coin and stowed it away in a pouch strapped to her hip. "As you will it, My Lord."

Waving his hand dismissively, he said, "You may leave."

The girl did so. Now alone with his servants, the city lord smiled deviously. "A Golden Foxkin? Here? In Milindo? The Primals must be smiling down on me. That makes two this year alone. To think that everyone thought they were extinct for the last century..."

His gaze wandered through the room until it landed on one of his many servants. "You. Go file a request at The Adventurer's Guild. Offer a whole white-gold coin. I need a B-ranker or greater. Preferably a gold-plate, but I'll accept as low as a steel-plate. The request is to assess someone's strength."

"Of course, My Lord." The servant bowed and rushed out of the room.

"Hmm... I won't make the same mistake I did with the baby. It's such a shame that only B-rankers or above can sense another's internal power, isn't it?" the city lord suddenly asked.

Startled by his abrupt question, several of the servants blanked and fumbled for an answer. Eventually, one muttered, "Y-Yes, My Lord."

"It's such a shame, indeed. If only Bastion could rank up, I wouldn't need to hire adventurers for such trivial things... Oh well. Let's hope this demi isn't that powerful or an awakened beastkin. It would be great to give my boy some real field experience for a change," the city lord said more to himself than to anyone present.